Components of a DBMS:

There are many components available in the DBMS. Each component has a significant task
in the DBMS. A database environment is a collection of components that regulates the use of
data, management, and a group of data. These components consist of people, the technique of
Handel the database, data, hardware, software, etc. there are several components available for
the DBMS. We are going to explain five main topics of the database below.

Let us discuss the components one by one clearly.

Hardware
The hardware is the actual computer system used for keeping and accessing the database. The
conventional DBMS hardware consists of secondary storage devices such as hard disks.
Databases run on the range of machines from microcomputers to mainframes.
Software
Software is the actual DBMS between the physical database and the users of the system. All
the requests from the user for accessing the database are handled by DBMS.
Data
It is an important component of the database management system. The main task of DBMS is
to process the data. Databases are used to store the data, retrieved, and updated to and from
the databases.
Users
There are a number of users who can access or retrieve the data on demand using the
application and the interfaces provided by the DBMS.
The users of the database can be classified into different groups −
 Native Users
 Online Users
 Sophisticated Users
 Specialized Users
 Application Users
 DBA- Database Administrator
Procedures
 The procedure is a type of general instruction or guidelines for the use of DBMS. This
instruction includes how to set up the database, how to install the database, how to log
in and log out of the database, how to manage the database, how to take a backup of
the database, and how to generate the report of the database.
 In DBMS, with the help of procedure, we can validate the data, control the access and
reduce the traffic between the server and the clients. The DBMS can offer better
performance to extensive or complex business logic when the user follows all the
procedures correctly.
 The main purpose of the procedure is to guide the user during the management and
operation of the database.
 The procedure of the databases is so similar to the function of the database. The major
difference between the database procedure and database function is that the database
function acts the same as the SQL statement. In contrast, the database procedure is
invoked using the CALL statement of the DBMS.
 Database procedures can be created in two ways in enterprise architecture. These two
ways are as below.
o The individual object or the default object.
o The operations in a container.

Database Access Language

Database Access Language is a simple language that allows users to write commands to
perform the desired operations on the data that is stored in the database.
Database Access Language is a language used to write commands to access, insert, and delete
data stored in a database.
Users can write commands or query the database using Database Access Language before
submitting them to the database for execution.
Through utilizing the language, users can create new databases and tables, insert data and
delete data.
Examples of database languages are SQL (structured query language), My Access, Oracle,
etc. A database language is comprised of two languages.
1. Data Definition Language (DDL): It is used to construct a database. DDL
implements database schema at the physical, logical, and external levels.
2. Data Manipulation Language (DML): It is used to access a database. The DML
provides the statements to retrieve, modify, insert and delete the data from the database.

ANSI / SPARC architecture of DBMS:

o The three-schema architecture is also called ANSI/SPARC architecture or three-level
architecture.
o This framework is used to describe the structure of a specific database system.
o The three-schema architecture is also used to separate the user applications and physical
database.
 o The three-schema architecture contains three-levels. It breaks the database down into
three different categories.

The three-schema architecture is as follows:

In the above diagram:

o It shows the DBMS architecture.
o Mapping is used to transform the request and response between various database levels
of architecture.
o Mapping is not good for small DBMS because it takes more time.
o In External / Conceptual mapping, it is necessary to transform the request from external
level to conceptual schema.
o In Conceptual / Internal mapping, DBMS transform the request from the conceptual to
internal level.
1. Internal Level

o The internal level has an internal schema which describes the physical storage structure
of the database.
o The internal schema is also known as a physical schema.
o It uses the physical data model. It is used to define that how the data will be stored in a
block.
o The physical level is used to describe complex low-level data structures in detail.
The internal level is generally is concerned with the following activities:
o Storage space allocations.
For Example: B-Trees, Hashing etc.
o Access paths.
For Example: Specification of primary and secondary keys, indexes, pointers and
sequencing.
o Data compression and encryption techniques.
o Optimization of internal structures.
o Representation of stored fields.
2. Conceptual Level

 The conceptual schema describes the design of a database at the conceptual level.
Conceptual level is also known as logical level.
 The conceptual schema describes the structure of the whole database.
 The conceptual level describes what data are to be stored in the database and also
describes what relationship exists among those data.
 In the conceptual level, internal details such as an implementation of the data structure
are hidden.
 Programmers and database administrators work at this level.
3. External Level

o At the external level, a database contains several schemas that sometimes called as
subschema. The subschema is used to describe the different view of the database.
o An external schema is also known as view schema.
o Each view schema describes the database part that a particular user group is interested
and hides the remaining database from that user group.
o The view schema describes the end user interaction with database systems.

Roles and functionalities of DBA:

A database administrator (DBA) is a person or group in charge of implementing DBMS in an
organization. The DBA job requires a high degree of technical expertise. DBA consists of a
team of people rather than just one person.
The primary role of Database administrator is as follows −
 Database design
 Performance issues
 Database accessibility
 Capacity issues
 Data replication
 Table Maintenance

Responsibilities of DBA
The responsibilities of DBA are as follows −
 Makes the decision concerning the content of the database.
 Plans the storage structure and access strategy.
 Provides the support to the users.
 Defines the security and integrity checks.
 Interpreter backup and recovery strategies.
 Monitoring the performance and responding to the changes in the requirements.

Skills required for DBA

The skills required to be a successful DBA are as follows −
 Database designing.
 Knowledge of Structured Query Language (SQL).
 Know about distributed architecture.
 Knowledge on different operating servers.
 Idea on Relational Database Management System (RDBMS).
 Ready to face challenges and solve the problems quickly.

The role of DBA is as shown below −

Data Dictionary:
A data dictionary contains metadata i.e data about the database. The data dictionary is very
important as it contains information such as what is in the database, who is allowed to access
it, where is the database physically stored etc. The users of the database normally don't interact
with the data dictionary, it is only handled by the database administrators.

The data dictionary in general contains information about the following −

  Names of all the database tables and their schemas.
 Details about all the tables in the database, such as their owners, their security
constraints, when they were created etc.
 Physical information about the tables such as where they are stored and how.
 Table constraints such as primary key attributes, foreign key information etc.
 Information about the database views that are visible.

This is a data dictionary describing a table that contains employee details.

Data Field Size for
Field Name Description Example
Type display
Unique ID of each
EmployeeNumber Integer 10 1645000001
employee
Name of the David
Name Text 20
employee Heston
Date of Birth Date/Time 10 DOB of Employee 08/03/1995
Phone number of
Phone Number Integer 10 6583648648
employee

The different types of data dictionary are −

Active Data Dictionary
If the structure of the database or its specifications change at any point of time, it should be
reflected in the data dictionary. This is the responsibility of the database management system
in which the data dictionary resides.
So, the data dictionary is automatically updated by the database management system
when any changes are made in the database. This is known as an active data dictionary as it is
self-updating.
Passive Data Dictionary
This is not as useful or easy to handle as an active data dictionary. A passive data dictionary is
maintained separately to the database whose contents are stored in the dictionary. That means
that if the database is modified the database dictionary is not automatically updated as in the
case of Active Data Dictionary.
So, the passive data dictionary has to be manually updated to match the database. This
needs careful handling or else the database and data dictionary are out of sync.